Hey Guys!
2010 is melting into spring and we wanted to let you know about some amazing opportunities God has given our ministry as we slip into this new season.
What’s New ~ We are working on a brand new Christmas album to be released the fall of 2010! We’re headed back to Nashville and Dark Horse Recording Studios www.darkhorserecording.com to continue the creative process. God opened the doors for this project last fall when we met with Eric Copeland (our new producer/consultant) www.creativesoulonline.com. We were in Nashville the week between Christmas and New Years creating the sound tracks for the songs which include four original Christmas songs that we wrote and some of our favorite Christmas carols including; O Come O Come Emmanuel, Away in a Manger, Angels We Have Heard on High, What Child is This… (check out the blog spot on our website www.eternityfocus.com to read more about the new album.) Speaking of our website, we have recently renovated the entire site giving it a whole new look. Check out all the new features including videos, bios, brand new photo galleries and more… Thanks to Steven at S and S Digital Design www.ssdigitaldesign.com for working with us and creating a new website that we love!
Old News ~ What’s Been Happening ~ We are continuing to travel as God opens doors for our ministry. Every weekend brings a new and exciting experience in His presence with lives being changed and touched by His power for His glory. We love life on the road and enjoy seeing and meeting other believers in Christ. It’s so encouraging to go to different states and see how God is moving in each city and every soul. Check out the schedule page on our website www.eternityfocus.com to see when we’ll be back in your area!
Going Deeper ~ Into Our Personal Lives ~ Sometimes life gets really crazy around here. We are babysitting three lovable babies everyday. Lane is an active two year old who absolutely LOVES playing with the little girls (whose names he is learning to pronounce in the most adorable way). We’ve babysat him since he was three weeks old and it’s been so much fun to see him learn and grow. He loves tagging along with our dad and his grandpa as they “check cows” and “open the gate” (phrases that we all hear at least twenty times a day from him). His vocabulary also regularly consists of tractor, grain cart, combine and train (which he loves to watch go by from our window.) We have also started babysitting Felicity who is nine months old and is a bundle of happy energy. She actively crawls everywhere and loves to play with Lane. Felicity’s cousin Kacee, who is five weeks younger than her, also comes over on weekdays. Kacee is at the “I’m frustrated because I can’t quite crawl yet and I want to move” stage. She is starting to get the hang of it though and has been doing a modified version of the army crawl across our living room carpet. Kacee is really laid back and content most of the time (especially when we are holding her). Needless to say, this babysitting experience has been great practice for when we will one day become moms (if it’s in God’s will for us to get married). Danika, Janika and Alika also continue to clean several houses (altogether over 25) on week days. Lainika is keeping up with her studies as a sophomore this year and does all her work on the computer thanks to homeschool curriculum from Switched on Schoolhouse and Teaching Textbooks.
Focusing on Eternity ~ Devotional ~ We have been faithfully watching the Winter Olympics being broadcast from Vancouver this year. As sport junkies we have even recorded the nights when we’re gone so that we won’t miss any of the monumental moments that make up Olympic history. Over the last couple of weeks the world has been watching the life changing moments that these athletes will remember forever. Their entire existence, especially over the last four years, has been focused on one goal, Olympic Gold. They train and sacrifice normal life in pursuit of the dream. It reminds me of the verse in 1 Corinthians 9:25 “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” I think this verse applies perfectly. How many of us have heard the athlete’s amazing stories of self-sacrifice and thought back to a time in our lives when we gave up something to pursue our own dreams. I think that’s why we all love the Olympics, we see stories of dreams coming true before our very eyes. As inspiring as all that is, I want to focus more on the second part of that verse. Though it’s amazing to see Olympic athletes live life changing moments, it really is all futile in light of eternity. Paul says it perfectly, “They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” He is talking about our spiritual lives. How often do we do that? How often do we talk about our spiritual lives? Most of the time we just gloss over it… How many of us give it the spotlight in our souls, minds and hearts that it deserves. So often we focus on our favorite pastimes and our own dreams, neglecting our faith in pursuit of our passions. As born again believers in Jesus Christ, our whole purpose for being on this planet is to pursue a relationship with Jesus and share that living love story with as many people as possible with the goal of giving them the same opportunity to share their own relationship with Jesus through our influence. As Paul so clearly stated, in the end, that is the only thing that will last, everything else will all fade away. Yet we all get wrapped up in our own personal existence, life changing experiences, hopes, dreams and stuff… stuff that snuffs out our spiritual life and hinders our reason for living. Gaining gold (or crowns that will not last) is not the objective, we should instead aspire to inspire other to become more like Christ while we continue to press on for the goal of attaining Godliness in our own lives. Because, in the end, your existence is not measured by life changing moments but by the lives that are changed because of your existence.